My team of 22 communicators arrived at Al Udied Air Base, Qatar on Jan 17, 2003. We started our USAF sponsored vacation in Doha, Qatar, but as the aircraft bed-down plan for the coming conflict changed, so did CENTAFs plans for our team and our gear. After a month in Doha, we were sent toa 'garden spot' in western Saudi Arabia called Tabuk Air Base. I may elaborate on this place in future stories, but suffice it to say, I was happy to get the heck outta Tabuk and into southern Iraq.Our team from Fairchild AFB wasfolded into the Langley team and we quickly found ourselves providing support for the only F15C unit in SWA. As the ground war approached I received a call from CENTAF-A6 staff asking, 'Can you put together a smallcommo team to go into southern Iraq and set up reachback comms or the A10 group out of Al Jafr?'. Well, what the hell do you say? My section began toying with a small team of 7 or 8 communicators to do just this mission long before our C5 ride to 'the 'Died'.My answer wasbrief, 'When and where?'. The when was soonenough and the where was Tallil Air Base, just 20 or sokilometers west of An Nasiryah. Funny thing here,my team wasdesigned to support heavy lift aircraft, you know, 'in the rear with the gear'. We came toSWA with no weapons, no ammo, no bedding..... You get the picture,typical 'zoomie' TDY, someone pour me a beer and hey, where is that damn remote? Of course I had been trying to change that airlift/refueling commo mindset for a few years, with limited success, so here was thetime to prove that point.Just cause your team is designed to support heavies, doesn't mean you won't be heading forward toworkwith the close-air-support teams. So Iset about the task of picking the sevenmen to join me. Yeah, there was no chance I was staying behind. You just can't lead from the rear, although I know many who have tried. Had a tough time here. My team was just phenomenal, every one of them, and I got more than 7 volunteers, but I settled on a close cadre knowing that we all knew our roles and each complemented the other in some important way.My team was TSgt Johnny Stange, TSgt Mark Seale, SSgt James Boyd, SSgt 'Berney' Bernhardt, SSgt Scott Roblewsky, SrA David Czepiel and A1C John Edwards.



We flew out of Tabuk on March 29th, yeah, a few days behind the army, but in our minds, we were moving in pretty early for a traditional comm team. Hell, the Combat Comms at Robins and Tinker were still fighting to get their gear out of the states. We flew into Tallil at about 200 feet off the deck. Was an interesting flight. I managed to sleep most of the way. We arrived at Tallil and were met by the Air Mobility Ops Squadron. They quickly offloaded, the C130 crew wished us luck and booted us off the loading ramp. The plane never shut off its engines and was gone. So here we are on the Iraqi base ramp, the AMOS forklift driver is already gone, and noone has met us. Was kinda eerie at first. Why? Tallil Air Base was bombed out in 1991 and never rebuilt. There were mere shells of buildings and hangers here and there, and the landscape was just plain bleak.After 10 minutes or so our contact comes rolling up to bring us to our new 'home'. We had no idea what to expect.

Our home turnsout to be the former headquarters for Iraqi Army Chemical Warfare units and still has remnants ofSoviet era equipment pepperedabout. We realized we'd have to take out the 'trash' before wecould get ourreal work done.My first order of this night is toto get our gear delivered and bed down the troops. As night falls we allbegin to realize how austere the USAF portion of Tallil really is....Noone before us seemed to remember to bring a generator of any size, so-no lights. The first night is flashlights and lightsticks.

We also realize we need to establish a field latrine and start considering sanitary issues that are probably second nature for some, but were never considered in the AMC commo team structure.

That next morning we bury ourselves in work. Johnny sets to work to power us up. Seems the 'in the rear with the gear flyboys' remembered to bringa MEP5 generator and 110gals of deisel. By nightfall, the SATCOM shot is up, the phones are working, the Command and Control Radios (C2) are up and the A10 commander can talk to Jafr and get the Air Tasking order. CENTAF thought we'd take a couple days, my guys established C2 in 12 hours! I was impressed...

Over the next fewdays we improved both ours and squadrons' position. We managed to extend telephone support all the way to the control tower despite our engineers attempts to cut our wires as they graded the adjacent field. Over the next few days everyone in the HQ building had lights and even the ceiling fans were working thanks to some creative wiring by my troops. It was more than 2 weeks before another prime power generator made it to the base. We were the only game in town. We were activated as the 392 AEG early on (a retired WW2 unit). Only after learning some unit history, that our units'name was the "Crusaders" with aknighton the patchdid someone realize they may have chosen a bad 'crest' for a USAF unit in the mideast. So, we found ourselves renamed the 407AEG.

Early on, all our engineer support came from the Royal Engineers. Damn they were good. They could 'bodge' just about anything together. No Harvest Falcon package needed here. They used salvaged junk found around the base to make latrines and showers. They even make a laundry. Hand wash only but who the heck brought any detergent?

It took four weeks for the Combat Comm to finally get bedded down on base. Nothing like being late to the fight. They took over our operation on Apr 25th, more than 30 days after the start of ground combat. Not their fault though. The Combat Comms fell victim to their size and the huge amount of airlift needed to get them into the fight. My team was 'light and lean'.

So on the 25th, we turned over ops to the 5th CBCS and went to the ramp to find a ride to Tabuk. We hoped for Bagdad, but we were fresh out of gear, so nowhere to go but the rear.

My time in SWA was the highlight of a 20 year career. A career that ended just a few months later with my retirement. I will never forget the men and women from the 92nd Communications Squadron, Global Reach Communications Element. We were intheA6s' nomadsand called the best non-combat comm team in the SWA. This is an honor that these troops worked very hard to earn, and they all deserved it.

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